Roy Mark

Republican members of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection are seeking a further look at the privacy implications of Google’s proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick. The deal is currently under regulatory scrutiny at the Federal Trade Commission. In a Nov. 6 letter to Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush, D.-Ill., Republican members of […]

WASHINGTON—Yahoo officials took a verbal beating Nov. 6 as a House of Representatives panel probed the company’s role in the jailing of a Chinese dissident and the subsequent “false testimony” Yahoo provided Congress about the incident. CEO Jerry Yang and Michael Callahan, Yahoo’s general counsel, were the only witnesses at the testy three-plus hour hearing […]

Wi-LAN, a Canadian patent licensing firm, filed patent infringement lawsuits Nov. 1 against 22 technology companies, including Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Intel. The lawsuits target chip suppliers, equipment vendors and electronic retailers. Wi-LAN contends the companies are violating its patents involving Wi-Fi and power consumption in DSL products. Wi-LAN claims a patent portfolio of more […]

Michael Callahan, Yahoo’s chief legal counsel, on Nov. 1 said he did not deliberately mislead a U.S. House committee last year about the company’s role in providing the Chinese government with information that sent journalist Shi Tao to jail for a decade. Callahan’s statement comes just days before the Nov. 6 House Committee on Foreign […]

Oracle’s takeover bid for BEA Systems was just the latest example of what is shaping up as a historic stretch of mergers and acquisitions in the technology industry. Despite a recent slowdown in the credit markets that left private equity companies on the sidelines during the third quarter, M&A analysts still expect 2007 to be […]

Sprint Nextel’s $5 billion WiMax plans appear to be in flux. After staking out a claim on WiMax as its technology of the future in August 2006, and announcing a tentative WiMax partnership with Clearwire a year later, Sprint is now considering alternatives. Among the Sprint’s options, according to the Wall Street Journal, is merging […]

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D.-Vt., questioned on Oct. 31 whether an “after-the-fact free pass” is in order for telecommunications carriers that cooperated with the Bush administration’s domestic spying program of telephone wiretapping and e-mail surveillance. As part of the renewal of FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), the White House wants Congress to grant immunity for […]

Public advocacy groups and legal scholars from Yale, Harvard and Stanford filed a network neutrality complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against cable giant Comcast Nov. 1. The complaint sets the stage for the first major test of the FCC’s network neutrality principles. The complaint claims Comcast, which has nearly 13 million Internet customers and […]

Time Warners AOL said Oct. 30 it is launching a program allowing consumers to opt out of targeted advertising based on the Web sites they visit. AOL will use technology developed by Tacoda, a behavioral targeting solutions company that AOL acquired earlier this year, to create this feature. The opt-out advertising program will deliver millions […]

Three bills favored by the technology sector won committee approvals Oct. 30 in the Senate and House of Representatives. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce approved a measures to allow municipalities to provide broadband Internet access and improve 911 VOIP (voice over IP) calls and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation passed […]

Nine privacy groups asked the Federal Trade Commission on Oct. 31 to implement a Do Not Track list to prevent consumers from having their online activities unknowingly tracked, stored and used by marketers and advertising networks. Based on the FTCs popular Do Not Call list, the Do Not Track list would require advertising firms that […]

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama promised Oct. 29 to impose network neutrality mandates on broadband providers such as AT&T and Comcast if elected to the White House next year. Network neutrality laws, Obama said, would create a “level playing field for whoever has the best idea.” Speaking at an MTV-sponsored campaign event in Iowa, Obama said […]